Sunday, 19 January 2014

Healthy bean minestrone soup

I'm aware this may not be the usual pretty cakes you've seen in the past but this is the ultimate comfort food on those cold winter nights- plus it's healthy ;) Suitable for the post Christmas diet of course! I find that minestrone with pasta in is sometimes too much if you're looking for a soup that's going to fill you up but not become stodgy so I use cannellini beans instead. Cannellini beans provide more protein than any other plant- derived food and since I'm a vegetarian (apart from prawns... haha) I try to get as much protein in me as possible- win win! As well as this, one portion contains more than two 80g portions of vegetables with means you get 2-3 of your 5 a day in one scrumptious bowl! Simple, delicious, healthy and warming- what more could you want on a cold winter night?

What you will need for 2 bowls:

1 tbsp coconut oil (healthier than other oils)

1/2 an onion, diced

1 small carrot, diced

1 large stick of celery, diced

1 tsp fresh thyme

1 tsp fresh rosemary

400g can of chopped tomatoes

300g vegetable stock

200g of cannellini beans

Couple of leaves of savoy cabbage, shredded

Pinch of salt

Grind of black pepper

15g Parmesan

What you do:

First heat the oil in a large pan over a medium-high heat. Throw in the onion, celery and carrot and herbs. Saute and stir occasionally for 5 minutes until the onion begins to lightly brown.

Next add the stock, beans, chopped tomatoes, pepper and salt and simmer and cover for a further ten minutes- allowing it to lightly steam.

Then chuck in the cabbage and cook for another 5 minutes (a lot of time involved ;) )

Taste and adjust the herbs and seasoning as preferred and serve into chunky bowls and use a peeler to shave the parmesan over the soup.